liminality

We have been discussing liminality in the lab lately – especially me and Jennie (who is just about to move from Umeå University and HUMlab to Luleå University of Technology – thus becoming a HUMlab alumni or remote associate).

The liminal state is characterized by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy. One’s sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation. Liminality is a period of transition, during which your normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed, opening the way to something new. (Wikipedia)

To a large extent, HUMlab is a liminal entity. As a structure it is somewhere in between different disciplines, disciplinary areas, technologies, different categories of people, traditional humanities/digital humanities, reflecting/creating, analogue/digital, university/non-university, work/non-work etc. And while there is a sense of stability in that liminal space, ‘the liminal’ is constantly being reconfigured and rebalanced.